01-19-06 -- Broderick, Thomas -- Guilty Plea -- News Release
Former Monmouth County Undersheriff Admits Money Laundering
NEWARK – A former Monmouth County undersheriff and highway department employee pleaded guilty today to money laundering, admitting that he accepted $15,000 for assisting in the laundering of large sums of cash from a cooperating government witness whom he believed was a corrupt demolition contractor, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.
Thomas Broderick, 56, who was also a former councilman in Marlboro Township, admitted before U.S. District Judge William J. Martini that on three occasions he entered into money laundering transactions with the government witness, whom he understood was involved in extortion and other illegal activities.
“Broderick entered into these transactions with a stunning eagerness and returned to feed at the trough repeatedly,” said Christie. “Unfortunately, there were plenty of others in Monmouth County who knew each other, spread the word between them, and followed their corrupt instincts as well.”
Broderick, who lives in Marlboro Township, pleaded guilty to a one-count Information charging him with money laundering, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Judge Martini scheduled sentencing for April 27. Broderick remains free on $50,000 bail.
Broderick specifically admitted conducting the following money laundering transactions:
• On May 4, 2004, Broderick met the cooperating witness and exchanged a $45,000 check for a brown paper bag containing $50,000 in cash;
• On May 17, 2004 Broderick exchanged a check for $22,500 for $25,000 in cash from the cooperating witness;
• On Sept. 14, 2004, Broderick provided another check for $22,500 in exchange for $25,000 in cash from someone he believed was an employee of the cooperating witness who was in fact an undercover FBI agent;
• In October 2004, Broderick provided two checks totaling $45,000 to the undercover agent in exchange for $50,000 in cash.
Broderick admitted that he conducted the transactions after being introduced to the cooperating witness by a Monmouth County official, to whom Broderick gave a portion of the money laundering proceeds for his role in setting up the transactions. Broderick also admitted that he understood that the cooperating witness was involved in extortion and that the money he was laundering was derived from extortion and collection activity.
Broderick was a former Monmouth County undersheriff. At the time of his arrest on Feb. 22, 2005, along with numerous other public officials targeted in an FBI corruption investigation in Monmouth County, he was an assistant supervisor at the county Division of Highways.
Christie credited Special Agents of the FBI’s Red Bank Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Leslie Wiser Jr., with the investigation that resulted in today’s plea and the prosecution of the other Monmouth County public officials and other individuals.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael A. Hammer of the U.S. Attorney’s Special Prosecutions Division in Newark.
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Defense Counsel: Robert S. Bonney, Esq., Red Bank